Updates pics :)

Thought I would include some updated pics of life in Omaha since alot of my friends and family don't know what its like around here. And the weather here lately has SUCKED to say the least. This past week we have had a "snow/ice" storm, been down to 0 degrees out with a wind chill factor of -15 so it hasn't been fun walking to class or getting Creighton (with all the hills around there).

 this our our fav quote around here.....

 Me and my family over Christmas break

 Heidi & I at the Bemidji vs UNO hockey game

 Heidi, Cassie & Me (Cassie's FIRST hockey game)

 Cassie, Me, Heidi & Katie at the game (we had SOOOO much fun)

 Me & my other siblings over Christmas break---I am so blessed with such a great family

 Me & my VERY handsome nephew while I was home

My uncle and I all dressed up in our UW gear for the UW vs NE game

All in all, things are going well here especially since today I got measured on my knee flexion (bending the knee) and I was at 120 degrees compared to the 94 degrees I was at about 1.5 weeks ago! I am sooooo excited about that, I know it's a pretty small accomplishment but its huge to me. I am so ready for the next few months. We have things all planned out that way each month we have something else to look foward to...so for now we wait for Heidi's birthday weekend!!! :)

Winter, oh Winter....

Well, the winter has FINALLY hit in Omaha and I am NOT liking it. We have been in a severe winter weather storm watch for a few days now and driving and walking to class hasn't been easy. Plus the fact that I have to drive to Creighton every day and that is NOT an easy task in this weather because CU is on a hill and you have to go down and up about 3 to get to and from there. NOT FUN!!! Other than the crappy weather, things here have been going fairly well. My knee is recovering quite nicely actually. I'm at about 110 degrees flexion compared to the 65 degrees I had two weeks ago. I am pretty excited about that, I have also started riding the bike which is a pretty big accomplishment for someone that is recovering from a big knee surgery. So the knee is good, school is GREAT so far this quarter. I am at Creighton working with volleyball and also men's & women's tennis. I LOVE it there!! Everyone is soooo great and the atmosphere is amazing. We've got some big plans this semester. Heidi's 23rd birthday is in Feb, so we are going out on the town for a night and then a big breakfast the next day. Then in March we are going to Kansas City for a few days for spring break which will entail us going to the casino all dressed up one night. Then we're going to go to the college basketball experience which is suppose to be COMPLETELY amazing!! Then in April I turn 25 :) and then we are done in May and then just 3 weeks of summer classes and then HOME!!! here are some pics of this esmester so far :)

First semester ALMOST done!!!!

YAY for my first "real" semester almost being done. Classes are going well so far, I am LOVING everything I have learned here. I was with football this semester and although I missed part of the games due to my ovurectomy and being "sidelined" because of it, I had a BLAST with the athletes!!! We didn't do too great this year, so no bowl game for us but it was a fun season regardless. The next two weeks are going to be pure hectic life style type stuff. I have had 2 exams, 3 proficiency tests and 2 papers that have been due these past two weeks and I have a pending knee surgery that I will have to recover from as well. Surgery is Monday Dec 6th and then I fly home Dec 14th for 3 1/2 WEEKS!! YAYAYAYAYAYAY!! I can't wait to be home after being gone for 6 months, its going to be amazing! Anyways, thats the update for now! Write more soon!

My bucket list

Well, I thought this would be fun to do. Hopefully I can accomplish all of them before I die!!!


1. Not worry about my disease anymore (check off - thanks to the hysterectomy I just had)
2. Go to work everyday and have it not really feel like work
3. Go on the most amazing vacation and not have to worry about a budget
4. Make up with people that I never thought I would talk to again.
5. Get married to the love of my life and NEVER fall out of love
6. Be able to cook an entire meal without having to use a recipe (like Dave's mom does)
7. Teach someone one of my passions and in turn have it be one of their passions as well.
8. Be an amazing athletic trainer
9. Take my mom to the US open
10. Pay off all my debt from college
11. Travel all across Europe with the love of my life
12. Learn how to surf
13. Be able to bake my grandma's applie pie so it tastes exactly like hers.
14. Be loved unconditionally
15. Go more than 3 days without being completely stressed out.
16. Have a child whether that means adopting or using a surrogate.
17. Have the same best friends that I have now
18. Pretend like there are no worries in the world.
19. Peace on earth
20. Own a Jetta
21. Be cancer free
22. Write in my journal on a daily basis
23. Be the person my friends' always go to with problems
24. Be the person everyone can count on
25. Donate money once a month to the ovarian cancer fund
26. Marry my best friend
27. Take up photography again
28. Learn to sew
29. Get a massage once a month
30. Stay as close with my family as I am now
31. Have a calendar full of birthdays and anniversaries and send out cards to everyone
32. Be able to work out without my knee subluxing
33. Love my life completely
34. Play tennis as much as I did when I was in college
35. Get straight A's for an entire quarter
36. Be the kind of mother my mom is to me-my best friend and my biggest support.
37. Have my kids throw me a surprise 25th wedding anniversary party like I just did for my parents.
38. Go to church on a regular basis again. (check - yay for that!!)
39. Look back on my life and see that it was everything it was meant to be.
40. Own my own home
41. Get my master's degree (partial check now because I just got accepted to a program)
42. Get another cross tattoo (check-thanks to the rosary beads and cross I just got around my ankle)
43. Go to the NCAA Final Four-whether that be as a fan or as an athletic trainer (secretly I am hoping the later)

Well, that's it for now. I'll add more as them come and cross out the ones I have done!!!

Halloween adventures & more

Well life couldnt get much better here in Omaha, well except if I had my family & close friends with me. Just finished my first MAJOR grad test and it was truly HELL to say the least. I think that I couldnt have studied any more than I did. We'll see how it goes. The good thing is that I have such a great time when I am in the ATR that nothing else seems to matter. Our head ATC is funny as all get out, he dances and "sings" whenever possible and thinks he is the absolute best at both :) it cracks me up how open and fun the setting and feeling is at "work." Football season is sort of coming to a close, depending upon how we do this weekend and if we will be going to a bowl game. So depending upon that we will either be done after our last game or we could go as long as Dec 5th. So we will see.

Grad classmates and I are still spending as much time together as we can, which is great. Stacy and I have thursday "show & date" nights, Heidi and I have date nights on Fridays before Nate gets into town and then the rest of us see each other in class and plan weekend stuff 2-3 times a month.

We LOVED our pumpkin carving party & potluck dinner full of mashed potates, BBQ chicken, HOMEMADE caramel apples, cookies, squash, pumpkin bread & so much more....We were carving pumpkins, decorating and eating for almost 4 1/2 hours, but it was soooo worth the lack of sleep!!!

Pumpkin carving at its best :)

having fun with the girls putting the "cobwebs"all over stacy's house

Our FINISHED pumpkins, they looked AMAZING and we had so much fun...

The adventures of a grad student :)

Wow, its crazy to think that I am ACTUALLY a grad student. It's not that I didnt think it would EVER happen, but the way it happened to me is just amazing. I didn't think I wanted to go to grad school, I thought I'd go to nursing school and be happy. But when I got that job at Wilson as their head trainer I instantly fell in love. I realized that my love was running on the field to helped an injured athlete. When basketball season came around those boys showed me what true love really was. They actually needed me, I felt like a part of the team and they came to rely on me. It was simply amazing and the entire reason I even applied to UNO.
And hey look at me now, I'm into my second semester here, living life and loving everything that has been thrown at me. Not gonna lie it's been scary at times and very frustrating. But I truly do love what I do so I don't think anything will throw me off my path here.

Most of you know my health history and some may not but either way I do have an update since my last blog (yes I know I need to blog more). After my hysterectomy in March, I was feeling better I didnt think that I'd be feeling as good as I was and I loved it. The first time in almost 9 years I actually thought I knew what it was like to be a normal person without constant pain. Then about a week after I got here the pain sort of hit me--I thought it was because I had been up and moving stuff so much but when it started getting worse and was so concentrated on my left side I knew I had to do something. Well I met a new doc, he did an ultrasound and he figured that since all my pain was on my left side and there were a decent amount of cysts that it would probably be a good idea to just take out my left ovary. I said agreed because once again I hate being in pain and it's sooooo irritating. So last thursday I had my left ovary removed--unfortunately non of my family was able to fly out here to be with me because the surgery was literally scheduled only 2 weeks ahead of time. Doc says he was very surprised I didn't have more problems than I did. Evidently my left ovary was so tied down to my abdomen that it wasn't moving causing cyst after cyst to build up along with the adhesions from my surgery. So I am now recovery from my hysterectomy and my ovurectomy and the slight complications I did suffer from the surgery. I am feeling different than I did before, however i know I have a long road ahead of me and it's not going to be fun. I know I will probably have to take hormones to compensate for the ones my left ovary was producing. I know that I am not going to be pain free anytime soon if ever. I know that all my cysts and problems could easily just move onto the Right ovary and I will be going through the same surgery again....but that's something I will handle when the time comes!! :) For now I am recovering and trying my best to just be happy.

Well that's the update for now. Nothing else special going on--just that I do get to come home in 3 months and I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Omaha---so far

Well, I have been in Omaha for a little over a month and so far I LOVE it. I don't necessarily like the humidity but I do love my classmates, classes, my job and everything else about the area. Our first grad class is about to wrap up this week which is just crazy to me. Six weeks has already FLOWN by. This week we start fball two-a-day practices which is going to keep us EXTREMELY busy but thats okay. I knew what I was getting into when I applied to the program. We got our fall assignments. I got UNO fball team so I will be staying on campus and working with them. I was a tad nervous when I first found out, but I am working under our head ATC so I will be learning alot which is exactly what I need. I want to absorb as much info as I possibly can. Fall classes start Aug 23 so thats great! Because I got assigned fball I won't be able to go anywhere for Thanksgiving, but that's okay there are a few other grads that can't either so we are going to do some sort of dinner together. Thankfully I will be home for about 3 weeks around xmas which I can't wait for. I truly miss my family sooo much and it's been very hard for me to be so far away. Especially with my parents, sis & bro because of how close I am to them. It's been hard, but Skype & cell phones are helping as much as possible.

As for my health-well it hasn't exactly gotten much better than my 8 week post op appt. I am having a great deal of pain on my left side (meaning my left ovary) and I am not enjoying the side effects of having cysts burst. I have consulted my doc back home and now I have to go see a new doc here in Omaha to see what he/she thinks the next step will be. I know I am only 5 months post op, but I shouldnt be in this much pain except for the fact that we knew my ovaries would be a problem. So we will see what this new doc says and what happens next. I hate being sick, I wish it would have been fully taken care of but I do understand why they left my ovaries-just sucks that now I might need to have them taken out and I will have to go through yet another surgery and recovery when I don't really have the time.

I have added some pics to here of some of the things we've been up to around Nebraska. So hopefully you enjoy. I will try my best to keep updating this but it is a tad hard with how busy we've been lately! MISS EVERYONE!!

Rosenblatt Stadium which is where the aaa team plays

us girls out in Lincoln for the first time

and the girls again (these are some of my classmates)

us girls @ wine tasting for Katie & Stacy's bdays!!

my latest tat #6

Stacy & I-wine tasting

Katie, Stacy, me, heidi & Nate (Heidi's bf)

me & my roomie Katie!!